Wilmington College built a 16-point second-half lead and held off a late Mount Union rally to top the No. 22 Purple Raiders, 66-60, in Ohio Athletic Conference action at Fred Raizk Arena Saturday afternoon.
The win moves the Lady Quakers to 6-6 in the OAC, 10-9 overall. Mount Union drops to 9-3 in the conference, 16-3 for the season.
For the Lady Quakers, the game was either feast or famine. Wilmington turned the ball over 31 times against Mount Union’s relentless pressure, but connected on 55 percent (23 of 42) of their shots from the field.
“I am definitely pleased with the final result. We may have set an NCAA record for winning a game with the most turnovers in history,” Wilmington head coach Jerry Scheve said. “It’s tough to win when you turn it over 31 times, but even though we turned it over against their pressure, we were able to get enough easy shots to shoot 55 percent. And we played solid defense and held them to 29-percent shooting. Our defense has been pretty consistent for us all year. We needed a good game today and we got one.”
Wilmington, which has struggled in finishing halves this season, did not struggle Saturday. The Lady Quakers used a 10-0 spurt to close the first half and build a 38-29 lead at the break.
The lead reached 56-40 when Olivia Waters (Cincinnati/Purcell Marian) scored on a stick-back at 9:18.
Mount Union, though, responded with a frantic push that sliced Wilmington’s lead to 60-55 with 1:33 to play.
“We stopped attacking their press,” Scheve said. “We got the big lead and got very conservative. We couldn’t even get people to look down the court, and we had people waiting down there for lay-ups.”
Kortney Kin (Upper Sandusky/Riverdale) scored in the paint and hit a pair of foul shots, and Claire Brown (Batavia/Glen Este) connected twice from the stripe as Wilmington held on for the win.
Kin led Wilmington with 24 points and collected six rebounds. Waters scored eight points and pulled down seven boards. Steph Prechtel (Wadsworth) finished with seven points and seven rebounds. Brown scored seven, and Marianne McGoron (Hamilton/Fenwick) and Emily Zimmerman (Beavercreek) scored six apiece. Kin and Prechtel blocked three shots each.
The Lady Quakers won the rebounding battle, 42-29.
Wilmington’s bench contributed 18 points and 12 rebounds.
“I was real pleased with our bench. That’s what we have been looking for,” Scheve said. “Emily Zimmerman stepped up big and probably made the two biggest shots of the game in the second half. Andrea Anderson always comes in and plays solidly.”
Wilmington will travel to Westerville to face Otterbein at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday.
